Such Discrepancies Within 15 Days'
Journey Would Be Inconceivable, But That In Both The Latter Instances At
Least He Appears To Speak Of The Rates At Which The Gold Was Purchased
From Secluded, Ignorant, And Uncivilised Tribes.
It is difficult to
reconcile with other facts the reason which he assigns for the high value
put on silver at Vochan, viz., that there was no silver-mine within five
months' journey.
In later days, at least, Martini speaks of many
silver-mines in Yun-nan, and the "Great Silver Mine" (Bau-dwen gyi of the
Burmese) or group of mines, which affords a chief supply to Burma in modern
times, is not far from the territory of our Traveller's Zardandan.
Garnier's map shows several argentiferous sites in the Valley of the
Lan-t'sang.
In another work[3] I have remarked at some length on the relative values
of gold and silver about this time. In Western Europe these seem to have
been as 12 to 1, and I have shown grounds for believing that in India, and
generally over civilised Asia, the ratio was 10 to 1. In Pauthier's
extracts from the Yuen-shi or Annals of the Mongol Dynasty, there is an
incidental but precise confirmation of this, of which I was not then
aware. This states (p. 321) that on the issue of the paper currency of
1287 the official instructions to the local treasuries were to issue notes
of the nominal value of two strings, i.e. 2000 wen or cash, for every
ounce of flowered silver, and 20,000 cash for every ounce of gold.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 195 of 1350
Words from 52207 to 52474
of 370046
